For the love of Chocolate!
by Melda Burke
Summary: Once upon a time there was a young chocolatier who was constantly irritated by his competitors. However, what nobody knew was that the Goblin King had fallen in love with his chocolate...


I own neither Jareth nor Willy Wonka. Respectively, those belong to and .

Willy Wonka sat at his desk late that night. He raised his arms high above his head and yawned, his mouth opening to reveal those perfectly straight, white teeth. He casually checked the clock and persued his lips at the time. It was nearly three in the morning! Typically, he went to bed around twelve, but he had been stuck with an unavoidable amount of paperwork because Doris had this week off and he'd been letting things pile up for a while.

He grimaced down at the folder full of complaints that he'd recieved earlier that day. All of them were from his competitors accusing him of cornering the candy market. Heck, it wasn't his fault their candies tasted like dirt mixed with sugar! The only reason that he had succeeded was because he had passion for his work, not for the money that his work made, but for candy as an idea and great candy as a goal.

He rubbed his arms as a draft of chilly night air entered in through the french doors that led out to his balcony overlooking the backside of his factory. He got up and stopped at the end of the balcony, staring up at the sky and smiling tiredly at the merrily twinkling diamonds in the sky. Maybe if he wished on a star all of these problems with Slugworth and Prodnose and all of the others would go away... "I wish..."

From behind a mirror in his office, goblins awoke and grinned out. "Is he gonna say it?" Asked Garlic, whose stinky breath from which he'd gotten his name made his neighbors wince.

"Shut up!" Hissed Knicker and he kicked out at Garlic viciously.

Willy blinked and glanced over his shoulder. Had he heard voices? He thought he'd heard..he shook his head slightly. No, it was just his immensely overactive imagination. He cracked a grin as he wondered if it was even possible to have an _over_active imagination. Suddenly, a picture of his brain in jogging shorts on a treadmill made him giggle. "Jogging shorts.." He said with another tiny laugh. "Haha!"

"Listen to that rubbish!" Garlic exclaimed. "It doesn't even start with 'I wish'!" He muttered to himself. "This is what we get for hiding in mirrors! Why in the world we took advice from that 'Mary' woman, I will never know!"

"Shut up!" Knicker kicked him harder this time. "He's gonna figure us out if you don't shut your trap!"

"Like you're any better!" Said a random goblin crammed up behind him. "You're yelling, at least he's using an inside voice."

Willy turned around again. This time he could have sworn that he'd heard somebody talking in his office. He grabbed his cane and held it out in front of him while examining the room. "Who's there? Show yourself!" He growled, a sound unnatural coming from him. "You'd better not be a vermicious knid because I've delt with your kind before!"

Garlic paled. "Do you really think it's a good idea to mess with this guy? If he's really fought k-knids be-before then he's badass!"

Knicker snarled. "You kidding? He looks like a pansy! A human can't be badass and have purple eyes. Ask the Fonz!"

Garlic glared at him. "Do you even _know_ the Fonz?"

Knicker paused and blushed, his blotchy green cheeks going pink. "Well..er..that is to say..uh..no." He recovered quickly though. "But I do know Mork! And Mork was friends with Fonzie and I'm sure that the Fonz would agree with me!"

Now Willy was sure he'd heard something. He caught a glimpse of the papers on his desk and gritted his teeth. "I knew it!" He shouted angrily. "How did you get in here Slugworth? HOW?! I swear when I find you that I'm going to throw you in my Taffy Puller, then turn you into a blueberry so I can watch your head pop like a pimple from all the juice!"

Garlic gasped and hid his eyes. "He's crazy! We picked a fricken psycopath!" He grabbed Knicker by his grubby collar. "How could you let us pick a damned psycopath! Did you hear him?! He's gonna turn us into blueberries! Is that even possible?! To hell with what you think Fonzie thinks, I'm getting the hell out of here!" He attempted to pound his way out of the mirror, to no avail.

Meanwhile, Willy had scattered the papers on his desk across the room and stamped his foot hard on the floor. "SLUGWORTH! I WISH THE GOBLINS WOULD COME AND TAKE YOU AWAY!"

The goblins ceased their squabbling and stared at each other with mouths open, their mottled skin had blanched to a yellow-greenish color. "He said it! He said the words!"

Garlic was the first to grin. "Well, you heard him! Let's go!" With that, the goblins vanished from the mirror and re-appeared in Slugworth's home. He was snoring and curled up with a teddy bear he called -phoo. And they took him, snickering all the way back to the castle at the center of the labyrinth.

Thunder crashed and made Willy Wonka jump. Lightening lit up the night sky in a momentary flash as rain began to pitter-patter against the ground outside. He quickly shut the french windows, but didn't close them fast enough to seal them against a soaked barn owl that flew straight in from the freak storm. Willy groaned and turned around to see a tall regal-looking blond man smirking at him. "Hello, Willy. I'm Jareth the Goblin King and I must say I'm a big fan of your work." He withdrew a half-eaten Wonka Scrumdiddlyumscious bar from his cloak.

"T-thanks." Willy fiddled with his gloves, making them squeak.

Jareth grinned at him and took a seat in his chair. "Well, it seems that you have wished away one mister Slugworth. Do you want a chance to re-claim him?"

Willy thought it over. He knew that Slugworth would never do it for him, but still.."What would I have to do?"

Jareth rolled his eyes. "Hmm..well..normally everyone has to figure out the labyrinth, but I'll make a special deal for you, Willy. I'll return the weasel of a man to this world if you take me on a tour of your factory."

Willy hesitated for a while. "Would any..harm..come to Slugworth if I left him with you?"

Jareth sniggered. "Oh, no. He'd just have to live out an eternity as an ugly little goblin, stealing children, spoiling milk, scaring the chickens..that old chestnut."

Willy sighed. On the one hand, he'd have gotten rid of his biggest problem in the industry, and on the other..well, Slugworth would be terrorizing more children than he already did as a human. "Fine. It's a deal."

Jareth nodded. "Wonderful." He got up and motioned for Willy to lead the way. "I think I'd like to see the Chocolate Room first, if you don't mind."


End file.
